Nine Princes in Amber: The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1

Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.

This Immortal

Conrad Nomikos has a long, rich personal history that he'd rather not talk about. And as arts commissioner, he's been given a job he'd rather not do. Escorting an alien grandee on a guided tour of the shattered remains of Earth is not something he relishes - especially since it is apparent that this places him at the center of high-level intrigue that has some bearing on the future of Earth itself.

To Green Angel Tower: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3

The evil minions of the undead Sithi Storm King are beginning their final preparations for the kingdom-shattering culmination of their dark sorceries, drawing King Elias ever deeper into their nightmarish, spell-spun world. As the Storm King's power grows and the boundaries of time begin to blur, the loyal allies of Prince Josua struggle to rally their forces at the Stone of Farewell.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

Fuzzy Nation

In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.

At the Sign of Triumph: Safehold, Book 9

The Church of God Awaiting's triumph over Charis was inevitable. Despite its prosperity, the Charis was a single, small island realm. It boasted less than two percent of the total population of Safehold. How could it possibly resist total destruction? The Church had every reason to be confident of a swift, crushing victory, an object lesson to other rebels.

Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

An all-new Stormlight Archive novella is the crown jewel of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection, the first audiobook of short fiction by New York Times best-selling author Brandon Sanderson. The collection includes eight works in all. Originally published on Tor.com and other websites, or published by the author, these wonderful tales convey the expanse of the Shardworlds and tell exciting tales of adventure Sanderson fans have come to expect.

The Mirror of Her Dreams: Volume I of Mordant's Need

The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life - until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land.

The Burrowers Beneath

For millennia men have strutted their pride over the fragile surface of the Earth, arrogantly proclaiming themselves masters of creation. But now their feeble investigations have disturbed the planet's original rulers far beneath the globe's crust.

Sixth Watch

They live among us. They fight among us. They're the Others, a supernatural race of magicians, shape-shifters, vampires, and healers. Divided into the Light and the Dark, these rival factions have spent a millennium under a reluctant truce. Now, however, both sides must unite against the ultimate enemy. A Light magician and high-ranking member of the Night Watch, Anton Gorodetsky fears nothing. But lately the threats are mounting.

The Dragonbone Chair: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book One

A war fueled by the dark powers of sorcery is about to engulf the peaceful land of Osten Ard - for Prester John, the High King, slayer of the dread dragon Shurakai, lies dying. And with his death, an ancient evil will at last be unleashed, as the Storm King, undead ruler of the elvishlike Siti, seeks to regain his lost realm through a pact with one of human royal blood. Then, driven by spell-inspired jealousy and hate, prince will fight prince, while around them the very land begins to die.

The Purloined Poodle

Thanks to his relationship with the ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan, Oberon the Irish wolfhound knows trouble when he smells it - and furthermore, he knows he can handle it. When he discovers that a prizewinning poodle has been abducted in Eugene, Oregon, he learns that it's part of a rash of hound abductions all over the Pacific Northwest. Since the police aren't too worried about dogs they assume have run away, Oberon knows it's up to him to track down those hounds and reunite them with their humans. For justice! And gravy!

The Android's Dream

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most unusual way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: A type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinaire.

Deus Irae

Two masters of science fiction collaborate on one wild post-apocalyptic story. After World War III, the Servants of Wrath cult deified the mysterious Carlton Lufteufel, creator of the doomsday weapon that wiped out much of humanity. But to worship the man, they need an image of him as a god, and no one has ever seen him. So the high priests send a limbless master painter named Tibor McMasters into the wilderness on a mission to find Lufteufel and capture his likeness.

The Aeronaut's Windlass: The Cinder Spires, Book 1

Since time immemorial the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace. Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy's shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels.

The Nightmare Stacks: Laundry Files, Book 7

After stumbling upon the algorithm that turned him and his fellow merchant bankers into vampires, Alex Schwartz was drafted by The Laundry, Britain's secret counter-occult agency that's humanity's first line of defense against the forces of darkness. Dependent on his new employers for his continued existence - as Alex has no stomach for predatory bloodsucking - he has little choice but to accept his new role as an operative in training.

The Runes of the Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Convenant

Since their publication more than two decades ago, the initial six books in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series have sold more than six million copies and have been published in 10 countries around the world. Now, starting with The Runes of the Earth, Stephen R. Donaldson returns with a quartet of new Covenant novels that are certain to satisfy his millions of fans, and attract countless new followers.

Off to Be the Wizard

It's a simple story. Boy finds proof that reality is a computer program. Boy uses program to manipulate time and space. Boy gets in trouble. Boy flees back in time to Medieval England to live as a wizard while he tries to think of a way to fix things. Boy gets in more trouble. Oh, and boy meets girl at some point.

Agent to the Stars

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents.

Ready Player One

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

Old Man's War

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce - and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Time for the Stars

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.

Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds.

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.

Storm Front: The Dresden Files, Book 1

A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters.

Publisher's Summary

Sign of the Unicorn is the third book of The Chronicles of Amber; an epic fantasy series written by six-time Hugo Award winning and three-time Nebula Award winning author, Roger Zelazny.

The ten books that make up the series are told in two story arcs: The Corwin Cycle and the Merlin Cycle.

The Audible audio rendition of this classic sci-fi/fantasy series is started off by 2012 Audie Award nominee, Alessandro Juliani, who reads the first five books that make up the Corwin Cycle and whose narration vividly brings the world of Amber to life.

Accepting the responsibilities as ruler to the world of Amber, Corwin finds himself the target of sibling treachery, and must seek guidance in a land of visions, where a sinister prediction foretells his doom.

Sign of the Unicorn is the third novel in Roger Zelazny’s CHRONICLES OF AMBER. At the end of the previous novel, The Guns of Avalon, Corwin finally got what he wanted: Eric off the throne. Corwin is now the regent of Amber by legitimate claim and he holds the Jewel of Judgment which has powers over the weather and, as Corwin learns, other powers that may be dangerous to its owner.

You’d think that things might now be easy for Corwin, but not so. The forces of Chaos are crossing into Amber from the shadow worlds, and they must be stopped. But Corwin’s most immediate concern is treachery from his scheming siblings. One of them has just been murdered and someone is trying to frame Corwin. During the fallout, other murder attempts occur. It’s clear that Corwin is not safe as long as his siblings are alive, but he doesn’t know which of them he can trust. During his interactions with them he learns a lot of the history that he has been unaware of while spending centuries on Earth without his memory of Amber. These stories slow the action but serve to enlighten us further about Amber, the Shadow worlds, how the trumps and the pattern work, the alliances between the siblings, how Corwin lost his memories, and what may have happened to their father Oberon. Of course, Corwin knows that some of his siblings may not be telling him the truth… Looking for guidance, Corwin visits Tir-na Nog’th, the city of moonlight. Instead of the answers he wants, he receives ominous visions which suggest that the real truth is even more frightening than the petty sibling rivalries Corwin has been dealing with.Sign of the Unicorn continues Corwin’s swiftly moving adventure. Things slow down a bit during this installment while the siblings tell their stories, but there are lots of revelations and plot twists to make up for that. One thing that’s lacking in these stories, so far, is a sense of what Amber is like beyond of the realm of the royal family. We see very few people who aren’t related to Corwin — not even household servants. The story is so focused on the family intrigue that we really don’t get to know Amber outside that context, which is somewhat disappointing.

Sign of the Unicorn definitely doesn’t stand alone — you need to read the previous books, Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon, first — and after the final revelation in Sign of the Unicorn, you won’t be able to stop there either, so plan to have the fourth book, The Hand of Oberon, ready. In fact, go ahead and get the fifth book, The Courts of Chaos, because the end of The Hand of Oberon is a doozy, too.

I read the entire CHRONICLES OF AMBER twenty years ago and am re-reading them now that they’ve been produced by Audible Frontiers. Each installment is rather short (only 5 or 6 hours on audio) which was usual for fantasy novels published back in 1970. Some of them had been previously serialized before being released in book form. The AMBER CHRONICLES are short and entertaining, but the length of each volume is something I’d consider when deciding whether or not to spend an Audible credit on them, especially since there are 10 books in the series (divided into two ARC). They are relatively inexpensive, though, and they’re certain to show up in Audible’s frequent sales. Alessandro Juliani does a great job with the narration — I really like him.

There are a lot of positive reviews popping up in support of this rendition of the Chronicles Of Amber. They are well deserved. Very original and at times very funny. The narration is excellent.

Roger Zelazny also wrote an excellent novel called the Lord Of Light and it was available through Audible in the not too distant past. Right now it is unavailable. As much as I am loving Amber, I think the Lord Of Light might be better and I encourage you all to request it as it is definitely in my top 5 and it should not be lost in the shuffle of publishing rights mumbojumbo. Request on, faithful readers/listeners.

Would you consider the audio edition of Sign of the Unicorn to be better than the print version?

A great performance to one of my favorite series from one of the best fantasy writers. Any of the young listeners to get to know one of the best writers in America.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Corwin is just the glue that pushes this story along.

Which scene was your favorite?

Tough to pin down just one but I love the interaction between Corwin and Random. Great banter.

Any additional comments?

As a young man I spent a great deal of my time reading the Chronicles of Amber. I became Corwin in his Adventures to Amber and into shadow. Sign of the Unicorn points us towards the climax of the chronicles. This reading, sorry, performance is just how it played out in my mind. Great job.

First of all, DON'T START READING WITH THIS BOOK. Go back and read Nine Princes in Amber first! Then pick up Guns of Avalon. This book is #3 and it is not a stand-alone.

I still enjoy this series despite a long-standing familiarity that threatens to "breed discontent" as I recognize some of the messiness in the writing. It's just too easy to forgive the flaws in this series, partially because the writing is energetic and the plot is fast-paced. There no "throw-away" parts of this five-book story.

Sign of the Unicorn is a bridge plot that pays off some of the mysteries seeded in books 1 and 2 and sets the stage for the final push of 4 and 5. (If this were Star Wars, Sign of the Unicorn would be The Empire Strikes Back.) A lot happens in this one but it is not a coherent story on its own.

Having established himself on the throne of Amber, Corwin uncovers a plot against his homeland in the form of strange forces from Chaos that, perhaps, had inside help.

Read by a master performer, written by a scientist poet, it simply doesn't get any better than this. The story is compelling, the characters are fascinating, the philosophy that underpins the series is frankly brilliant: all that would put this series on the list of books to read and reread every year or so; but then add to that Juliani's performance and this series becomes one of the few that you'll miss terribly the moment you have stopped reading it.

Originally, I listened to this series many, many times in the abridged format, since the recordings were out of print and I could not obtain the unabridged format. The series was read by the author. The master recordings were found, according to the first two unabridged audiobooks read by Roger Zelazny that I have on CD. I love this storyline, and have often wondered how the author conceived the series, since it is unlike any other. This series is even mentioned in the Nightside series by Simon R. Green. (Listen carefully, when the Amber Prince disappears along with the diner). However, after hearing Mr. Zelazny read these audiobooks, it is quite hard to listen to the new narrator. I miss the gravely intonations, and the narration that Mr. Zelazny wrought. I do not like Random's voice, especially since the character - well, just listen and you will find out what happens. Bottom line, this series is a must have, no matter the narrator.

I can only reiterate my review of Nine Princes in Amber. This is part of a quintology and, I feel, needs to be read or heard as one book as the story arc starts with Book 1 and finishes with Book 5. I read this book and also the subsequent four books years ago and was totally enthralled by them. I've been waiting a long time to get them on audio. The story is still brilliant but feel the performance could be improved upon. Alessandro Juliani does a good job but I feel audio books would really benefit from having a narrator and a different actors for the different characters. There is a limit to what one person can do by way of changing voices and it is sometimes difficult for a male to replicate a female voice and vice versa. However, having said the above, I really enjoyed the experience of Nine Princes in Amber and the subsequent four books of the quintology in audio.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

an italian in london

London, UK

10/6/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"masterpiece timeless"

forget anything else this is a real masterpiece of fantasy and scifi literature. and beyond.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Christopher

Telford, United Kingdom

4/17/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"A good bridge no doubt"

Story – 4/5

I didn’t enjoy this 3rd book quite as much as the other two. Mainly because it seemed to be trying tie up all the loose historical ends with the princes/princesses of Amber ready for what is to come. Random’s story at the start was really long, and probably could have been shorter, but this is already a small story. Saying that, there are some interesting things happening in the story, which are very intriguing, so if this was a middle section of a larger book, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all.

I am glad I got the first 3 novels in a 3 for 2 sale, as it probably isn’t good value for money for 1 credit – where the first 2 probably were….just about.

Performance – 4.5/5

I have given Alessandro Juliani 5/5 up until now, but the large Random story at the start made me realise how annoying that character’s voice is. Don’t get me wrong, it is very fitting to the character’s personality, but it would have been better if toned down a little for what seemed like 1 hour of the audiobook. Other than that – flawless; great voice acting and narration.

Overall – 4/5

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Cait

2/1/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Another great book of Amber."

Great stuff, would have been better if they had a female voice for the female parts, but this is a minor quibble. (Mostly because the female characters are minor!) Some of my favourite books of all time.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.